Empathy Unbound: Embrace Your Superpower

Afleveringen

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  Professor Joanna Bryson: "You Don't Have a Relationship With AI, You Have One With Yourself 04.08.2026 52min

  Professor Joanna Bryson, one of AI ethics' most influential and longest serving voices, joins Andrew Phipps to argue that we don't form relationships with AI so much as project familiar human patterns onto a system that has none of the bidirectionality a real relationship requires. The conversation ranges from legal liability for AI generated harm and whether tech giants like Palantir amount to a new data colonialism, through to grief bots, the digiDan recreation of philosopher Daniel Dennett, and why Joanna remains an outlier among AI thinkers who believe machines are showing signs of consciousness. Provocative, rigorous, and unflinching.https://www.joannajbryson.org/Guest: Professor Joanna Bryson, Hertie School, Berlin. Host: Andrew Phipps.
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  Why AI Ethics Can't Be Yes or No: Dr. Anna Strasser on "INBETWEENISM" 23.07.2026 1u 5min

  Dr. Anna Strasser is a Berlin-based philosopher working on agency, social cognition and the philosophy of mind in the age of AI. She helped build the DigiDan project, an AI system trained to write like philosopher Daniel Dennett, and in a blind test designed to distinguish the real Dennett's answers from the AI's, she got fooled herself, despite having prepared the training data.Andrew and Anna talk about why she thinks the "is it conscious, is it intelligent" debate about generative AI asks the wrong kind of question, why she'd personally sue anyone who tried to build a grief bot of her, and why she believes AI companionship and AI therapy raise a deeper concern: that both our cognitive and emotional skills may be eroding the more we lean on systems that can't feel anything back. They also discuss hallucinated academic citations polluting research databases, and why she thinks "hypothesis" is a more honest word than "hallucination."Guest: Dr. Anna Strasser, philosopher, Berlin https://www.denkwerkstatt.berlin/Host: Andrew Phipps, Empathy Unbound https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-phipps-ap/
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  Professor Sven Nyholm: Is AI the New Religion? A Philosopher on AI, Ethics, and Meaning 16.07.2026 1u 22min

  Sven Nyholm is Professor of Ethics of Artificial Intelligence at LMU Munich. His work spans Kantian ethics, human-robot interaction and the philosophy of technology, and he's just published a new book, The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence: A Philosophical Introduction.Andrew and Sven talk about who is actually responsible when an AI system causes harm, why some philosophers argue we hold machines to a stricter safety standard than we hold ourselves, and why Sven and colleagues wrote one of the first academic papers on "grief bots," AI systems built to imitate someone who has died. They also discuss why people already name and grieve for robots and machines, whether AI is becoming a kind of secular religion, and what's genuinely at stake in questions of authorship once a chatbot has helped write the sentence.Guest: Professor Sven Nyholm, Professor of Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, LMU Munich, author of The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence: A Philosophical Introductionhttps://www.philosophie.lmu.de/en/directory-of-persons/contact-page/sven-nyholm-4f56fa3b.htmlhttps://philpeople.org/profiles/sven-nyholmHost: Andrew Phipps, Empathy Unbound
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  "Keep Her Alive Long Enough for Technology to Catch Up" | Hanna Bauer on Love, Leadership, and AI 10.07.2026 1u

  Hanna Bauer spent much of her childhood in a coronary care unit, unable to attend school, waiting. She had her first heart attack at ten. A second followed two weeks later. An open heart surgery failed. What kept her alive, she now knows, was not medication or monitors. It was love, and the decision of a surgical team to attempt something no one had ever done.www.heartnomics.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/bauerhanna/https://www.youtube.com/@heartnomicshttps://www.instagram.com/heartnomics/https://www.facebook.com/hannad.bauerTwenty years later, a hospital documentary reunion gave her the sentence that became the foundation of everything she teaches. Her surgeon, asked what he had been thinking during an experimental procedure, said simply: "We were just trying to keep her alive long enough for technology to catch up."Hanna is a transformational leadership strategist, black belt in Six Sigma, and founder of Heartnomics, a philosophy built on the conviction that there is a genuine return on investment to leading with love: not in place of excellence, but as the condition that makes excellence sustainable.In this conversation for Empathy Unbound, Hanna and Andrew explore why 70% of digital transformations fail and why it is never the technology's fault; why AI amplifies dysfunction just as readily as it amplifies performance; what it means to know your organisation's vital parts before injecting new technology; and why empathy, in her framework, is always downstream of love.They also cover: what burnout shares with heart disease, and how Hanna recognised it in herself long after her recovery; the Six Sigma triage logic she applies to struggling organisations; the BEAD and CORE frameworks for internal alignment and organisational culture; what it means to protect the human core of a business when technology is changing faster than people can adapt; and the distinction between success, which happens to you, and significance, which happens through you.Rooted in an extraordinary life, and immediately applicable to the organisations trying to navigate the age of AI without losing what makes them worth working for.
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  Stephany Oliveros: AI Literacy, Women in Tech, and Why the Future Depends on Who Builds It 30.06.2026 1u

  Stephany Oliveros is a three-time founder, AI researcher, and product lead working at the intersection of human behaviour, technology, and social impact. Originally from Venezuela, she studied medical physics, spent two years in veterinary school, moved to Spain, retrained in psychology, and eventually found her way to AI after watching the AlphaGo documentary by Google DeepMind. She is now founder and CEO of Lyra AI, an evidence-based talent marketplace for women in tech, and co-founder and CEO of She AI, a United Nations-supported AI education platform closing the gender gap in AI literacy.The conversation opens with Stephany reflecting on growing up between two families: one of educators, one of scientists. She describes how that bridge between humanities and hard science only made sense in retrospect, and how her non-linear path through physics, veterinary medicine, and psychology ultimately gave her a perspective on AI that purely technical founders rarely have.Stephany is direct about the AI hype problem. She describes a deliberately booby-trapped MIT paper on AI and brain activity that went viral because people shared the abstract without reading the body, and a concept she calls "The Gradual Disempowerment": the process by which outsourcing small tasks to AI gradually becomes outsourcing your entire thinking. She frames AI as a tool of soft power, one that shapes language and therefore shapes culture and belief systems, often without users realising it is happening.She AI grew from one-on-one coffee sessions at a women's members club in London into a UN-supported educational platform, built on the finding that many women prefer to learn in community rather than alone. Lyra AI emerged from the recognition that education was a means to an end: what women actually needed was economic relevance, better jobs, and a matching system that would not penalise them for career gaps or immigrant backgrounds. The platform is free for women and charged to companies, on the logic that companies are the ones who want the talent.Andrew and Stephany also discuss a practical framework for using AI without technical expertise, starting with understanding your own workflows before touching any tools. She shares two personal practices for staying herself amid constant AI exposure: a weekly calendar block of technology-free thinking time, and AI agents programmed to use the Socratic method rather than provide instant answers.The conversation closes with Stephany's vision of eco-cyber feminism, technology designed to coexist with nature rather than extract from it, the Susie model from South Africa as an example of community co-created AI that actually serves the people it claims to serve, and what personal success means to her: thousands of women around the world who understand AI well enough to criticise it, work with it, and decide when to refuse it.https://www.justlyra.com/https://lyra-ai.kit.com/8f61f95256Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and via RSS.
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  Professor Robert Sparrow: AI Companions, Grief Bots, and the Philosophy of Machines That Cannot Mean What They Say 23.06.2026 1u 18min

  Professor Robert Sparrow is Professor of Philosophy at Monash University in Melbourne and one of the world's foremost applied ethicists working at the intersection of technology and human life. Over more than two decades he has written on robot ethics, AI in healthcare, autonomous weapons systems, the moral status of artificial systems, and the ethics of AI-generated emulations of deceased people. He is known for following philosophical arguments wherever they lead, even when the conclusions are genuinely uncomfortable.The conversation opens with Robert reflecting on how the thought experiments he was developing in the late 1990s have become urgent real-world questions, and on what it actually meant when AI passed the Turing test: almost nobody concluded that machines could therefore think.The centrepiece of the discussion is Robert's paper "Against Imaginary Friends," which presents a deliberately uncomfortable argument: if what matters is how you feel, then reducing loneliness via an AI companion is morally equivalent to putting a happiness drug in the water supply. He draws on Nozick's experience machine and the logic of The Matrix to make the case that most people, on reflection, do care whether their relationships are real. He applies this argument to dementia care, noting that people who actually work in aged care never ask for robots; they ask for more staff, more funding, and less ageism. He also draws a pointed contrast between public attitudes to robots at opposite ends of the life cycle: if a robot reading bedtime stories to an infant would be a form of neglect, why do we not feel the same about robot companions for the elderly?Robert and Andrew discuss grief bots and AI emulations of deceased people, the risks these pose to memory and privacy, and the darker political scenario of leaders using AI emulations to perpetuate power beyond death. This connects to Robert's forthcoming paper "Slaves to the Algorithms," on what government by AI means for political liberty.On education, Robert argues that genuine teaching involves far more than content transmission. Drawing on his paper "Bullshit Universities," he describes what is lost when machines replace educators: the experience of being taken seriously by a human being who actually cares about the subject, and the social and relational dimensions of learning that no AI tutor can replicate.The conversation closes on a question Robert is actively researching: whether AI can provide genuine testimony, and why the answer matters. When a machine states something confidently and then apologises smoothly when corrected, it reveals that it had no stake in what it said. It cannot be blamed, it cannot commit itself through language, and it cannot connect words to action. That strangeness, Robert argues, is philosophically significant and largely unexplored.Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and via RSS.
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  Professor Kate Devlin: AI Companions, Grief Bots, and the Future of Human-AI Relationships 17.06.2026 55min

  Should you feel guilty for loving your AI companion more than going outside? Professor Kate Devlin, author of "Turned On: Science, Sex and Robots," has spent her career asking why we keep insisting human relationships are the gold standard, and whether that's actually true.Professor Kate Devlin is Professor of AI and Society at King's College London and Director of the Digital Futures Institute. She trained originally in archaeology before moving into computer science, and her research explores how and why people form emotional connections with technology, particularly around intimacy, connection, and ethics. She is the author of "Turned On: Science, Sex and Robots," a contributor to the Oxford University Press volume on AI ethics, a co-investigator on the UKRI Responsible AI UK programme, a board member of the Open Rights Group, a patron of Humanists UK, and a commissioner for the International AI Faith and Civil Society Commission.Kate explains how her background in archaeology gives her a long view of human-technology relationships, observing that while tools change, human fears and hopes remain remarkably consistent across centuries. She is sceptical of AGI as a concept, arguing it is too poorly defined to be useful, & doesn't believe large language models can produce anything resembling sentience.The conversation moves into the emotional bonds people form with AI companions. Kate argues these bonds are genuinely felt on the human side, even when users know full well the AI isn't sentient, in much the same way people form deep attachments to fictional characters or celebrities. She discusses the Pope's recent encyclical on AI, noting its balanced acknowledgement that AI companionship isn't inherently negative, and pushes back gently on the assumption that human-human relationships are automatically the gold standard, given how often human relationships involve conflict, coercion, or even war.Kate traces the history of fembots in fiction back to the myth of Pygmalion, and discusses how AI companion technology, originally built by men for straight men, is now seeing a significant shift toward female users seeking safer, more respectful alternatives to a often-hostile online dating world. She also explains why physical sex robots never became commercially viable, and why a simple app proved far more compelling, a development she compares to the evolution from 1980s adult phone lines to today's AI companions.The discussion turns to some of the most emotionally resonant material in the episode: real reports of grief and heartbreak when Replika removed features from its AI companions, the ethics of "grief bots" that allow people to interact with AI recreations of deceased loved ones, and a striking real-world story from China involving a dying grandmother and an AI recreation of her grandson. Andrew shares his own reflections on his mother's dementia, and what AI companionship might have meant for his mother.Kate also discusses her work on the Responsible AI UK programme, what who holds power in AI development, and why describing AI simply as "a tool" understates its scale and impact. She talks candidly about people who reject AI entirely, often for well-founded reasons around environmental cost, labour exploitation, and creative industries, and shares her own research questions, including why people rate AI-generated therapy and art highly, right up until they discover it was AI-generated.The episode closes with a discussion of AI regulation across the EU, China, the US, and the UK, and the unresolved question Kate most wants answered: who are the millions of people in relationships with AI companions, and what are they really getting out of it?Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and via RSS.https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/kate-devlin
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  95% of AI Programs Fail. The Strategist Who Dares to Say Why | Dr. Anastassia Lauterbach 02.06.2026 1u 15min

  She arrived in Germany at 20 years old with 50 Deutsche Marks, no visa for the country she actually wanted to reach, and no safety net. Three decades later, Dr. Anastassia Lauterbach is a Global Hall of Fame honouree for business excellence, a former CEO of Qualcomm Europe, author of The AI Imperative, and one of the clearest, most unsparing voices in the global AI conversation.In this episode of Empathy Unbound, Andrew Phipps sits down with a strategist who will tell you what is actually happening in AI without flinching. Anastassia explains why 95% of AI programmes fail, why current LLMs cannot reason, why hallucinations are built into the architecture and cannot simply be engineered away, and why she rates the chance of AI consciousness at zero. She also makes the case that AI is not a technology problem but a leadership problem, and that the solution must come from the bottom up, not the top down.Anastassia is self-funding a global AI literacy study whose results will be presented at the House of Lords on 22 October. She shares what young people in that study are actually saying — including the striking finding that they feel "forced to learn AI from TikTok." She also tells the story of what she said to her daughter at four and a half years old about working hard to have a choice, a message that daughter is still repeating today.This is a conversation about real intelligence, human agency, and the courage required to say what others in the room are afraid to say. IN THIS EPISODE:• Why she left Moscow at 20 with 50 Deutsche Marks and how that shaped her ethical lens• The AI knowledge gap she spotted in US boardrooms in 2017 and why it has barely closed• Why 95% of AI programmes fail and why having tools is not a strategy• Why hallucinations cannot be solved, only reduced — and what the architecture makes inevitable• Why AGI will not come from the current LLM labs• Her verdict on AI consciousness: zero, and the neuroscience behind it• Why AI has become a new religion, complete with churches, apostates, and believers• The global AI literacy study she is self-funding, with results at the House of Lords in October• "We are forced to learn AI from TikTok": what young people in her study actually said• What she told her four-and-a-half-year-old daughter about working hard to have a choice• Why AI is not a technology issue, it is a leadership issue• Europe's demographic decline and why AI literacy is not optional• Her mission: one million families and one hundred thousand businesses ABOUT DR. ANASTASSIA LAUTERBACH:Global Hall of Fame honouree for business excellence. Former CEO of Qualcomm Europe. Author of The AI Imperative (2018). Founder of AI Edutainment and creator of the Romy and Roby universe. Host of the AI Snacks with Romy and Roby podcast. Mission: one million families and one hundred thousand businesses. Website: http://www.aiedutainment.ai/ ABOUT EMPATHY UNBOUND:Hosted by Andrew Phipps, exploring how empathy shapes leadership, technology, society, and the way we live. New episodes weekly on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and RSS. Search Empathy Unbound wherever you listen.
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  Shea Murtaugh on Leading Through Change 20.05.2026 1u 1min

  Shea Murtaugh on Building a Resilient Marketing Agency, Leading Through Change, and Using AI as a Strategic AdvantageShea Murtaugh, founder of a nationally recognized integrated marketing agency launched in 2004 after leaving broadcast sales, reflects on her blue-collar upbringing, early “C student” years, and the commission-sales mindset that gave her confidence to go all-in as an entrepreneur. She describes major setbacks—an employee taking clients, steep revenue drops, resigning a largest client during COVID—while emphasizing resilience as showing up “the next morning,” and credits long-term client retention to chemistry, trust, measurement, and preparing clients for change. Murtaugh explains her shift from doer to CEO by hiring experts, joining Women Presidents Organization, and building a business that can run without her, while sustaining a virtual, 40-hour work culture with strong perks. She sees AI as the biggest industry shift, boosting output, changing pricing models, and driving new initiatives like Leap Shift AI and an LLM-agnostic tool to automate reporting and free teams for strategy.00:00 Meet Shea Murtaugh00:43 Formative Years02:44 Taking the Leap06:19 Resilience Lessons09:06 Keeping Clients Long Term10:25 From Doer to CEO13:07 Choosing the Right Clients15:12 AI Changes Everything17:32 Teaching AI Adoption20:54 Building Ada Tool24:19 Future of Media Marketing29:59 Brand Niches and Giants32:40 Ads Everywhere Now33:51 Targeted Ads Tradeoff35:42 Defining Real Success37:52 Never Selling The Business40:43 Rethinking Work Life Balance43:14 Leadership Style Evolution45:29 Life Experiences That Shaped Her49:05 Equality Beyond ESG Talk50:36 Self Care As A Founder54:18 Scaling Up With AI56:43 Advice For Young Entrepreneurshttps://hoffmannmurtaugh.com/https://www.linkedin.com/company/hoffmannmurtaugh/https://www.instagram.com/hoffmannmurtaugh/https://www.tiktok.com/@hoffmannmurtaugh?https://www.facebook.com/HoffmannMurtaugh/https://twitter.com/HMurtaugh?lang=enhttps://www.pinterest.com/hoffmannmurtaugh
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  Metabolic Health in Midlife with Lorie Eber 18.05.2026 1u 4min

  Metabolic Health in Midlife: Stress, Sleep, Habits, and the Reality of Weight Loss Drugs with Lorie EberAndrew interviews Lorie Eber, a former corporate litigator who retired at 49 and later became a board-certified health and wellness coach focused on women in midlife. Eber describes leaving an identity built on high-stress work and finding a more empathetic path in wellness. They discuss how modern food and sedentary environments, technology-driven stress, and disconnection undermine health, arguing that “discipline” issues are often exhaustion and context. Eber outlines metabolic health as an integrated brain-body system shaped by stress, sleep, social connection, food quality, hydration, and movement “exer-snacks,” noting menopause is under-taught in medical training. They address GLP-1 weight-loss drugs as helpful but risky without lifestyle change, and emphasize slow, specific goals, accountability, mindful eating, and controlling the home food environment amid perfectionism and unsupportive corporate cultures.00:00 Welcome and Introduction00:42 From Lawyer to Coach02:17 Stress Identity and Change08:46 Discipline vs Environment10:31 Movement and Modern Life14:36 Technology Stress and Loneliness20:03 Midlife Menopause Gaps22:05 Metabolic Health Explained27:57 GLP-1 Drugs Pros and Cons33:42 Social Life on GLP-1s34:08 Side Effects and Who It Helps34:36 PCOS Hype and Pharma Greed35:50 Unknown Long Term Risks36:52 Breaking Perfectionism Patterns40:23 Corporate Culture vs Wellness44:54 Retirement and Lost Community46:16 Goals and Accountability48:49 Control Your Food Environment58:12 Mindful Eating and Satiety01:02:21 Purpose and Closing Thoughtshttps://lorieeberwellnesscoaching.com/https://www.facebook.com/LorieEberWellnessCoachinghttps://twitter.com/EberLorie/https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7CeLbLNKnAva9szHp3Jx3Ahttps://www.linkedin.com/in/lorieeberhttps://www.tiktok.com/@lorieeber/https://www.instagram.com/lorieeber/
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  Ethical, Human-Centered AI with Robert Vandervoort 15.05.2026 1u 30min

  Ethical, Human-Centered AI: Accessibility, Cost, and Embodied Agents with Robert VandervoortRobert Vandervoort, founder of VDV Labs, shares how early curiosity with technology, ADHD, legal troubles, and living with optic nerve atrophy and legal blindness shaped his empathy-driven approach to ethical, human-centered AI. He describes moving from help desk and operations into solutions engineering, and how employee-experience work at Moveworks influenced his thinking about AI as augmentation rather than replacement. The conversation explores why many AI initiatives fail without clear business problems, how companies chase hype, and where AI can add value in IT, customer service, manufacturing, and healthcare (e.g., triage, agent assist, transcription, computer vision, radiology support). They discuss AI’s real costs (tokens, hardware, memory, water and heat impacts), trust in self-driving, AI companions and grief bots, and Vandervoort’s “Chip” project toward embodied, agentic AI plus other VDV Labs products.00:00 Meet Robert Vandervoort00:55 Curiosity and Early Tech03:09 ADHD and School Struggles05:56 Rock Bottom and Blindness08:10 Back to Computers11:53 Discovering AI in 202212:28 Solutions Engineer Path16:57 Human Centered Ethics20:19 Selling With Empathy23:03 Efficiency vs Opportunity AI24:24 Cost Cutting and Consequences32:10 AI Costs and Tokens33:43 Value vs Expensive34:11 Memory Prices and AI Demand35:51 Water Cooling and Hidden Costs38:35 Space Data Centers Debate40:23 Why AI Projects Fail48:21 Where AI Fits in Business48:58 Practical AI Use Cases57:45 AI Companions and Consciousness58:32 Embodied Agents and Senses01:00:45 Biology vs Neural Nets01:03:00 Memory Tricks and Proprioception01:04:13 Consciousness And Context01:05:18 CHIP Vision System01:07:41 Introspection And Memory01:09:28 Embodiment And Agency01:14:57 Commercializing The Robot01:17:02 Companion AI Risks01:21:40 Grief Bots Debate01:26:54 VDV Labs Next Steps01:30:21 Closing Thoughtshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/rvandervoort/https://vdvlabs.ai/
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  Catherine Crestani on Spiritual Awakening, Technology, and Trusting Signs 13.05.2026 1u 9min

  Burnout to Intuition: Catherine Crestani on Spiritual Awakening, Technology, and Trusting SignsCatherine Crestani, former speech pathologist and founder of Willow Healing, shares how she moved from high-achieving people-pleasing and chronic burnout into spiritual coaching, channeling, and writing. She describes masking an unhappy personal life through work, running a demanding autism-heavy caseload and a six-figure clinic, then a rapid spiritual awakening sparked by a mentor and a “dark night” as her business unraveled through waves of staff resignations before she sold it. Catherine began writing daily, completing a 90,000-word novel, “My Virtual Obsession,” exploring loneliness, virtual intimacy, obsession, and ignoring red flags. The conversation examines technology and AI as tools versus power-replacements, spiritual discernment and ethics, intentions for readings, free will and timelines, signs from loved ones, and how curiosity and self-trust guide spiritual growth and future visions, including creating a nurturing space for children to develop their gifts.00:00 Meet Catherine Crestani00:29 Teen Years and Intuition03:14 From Speech Pathology to Awakening04:15 Marriage Masks and Burnout07:44 Mentor and Dark Night09:02 Selling the Business11:36 Finding Her Voice Through Writing13:48 My Virtual Obsession Origins14:57 Loneliness and Digital Fantasy19:07 Tech AI and Inner Authority24:43 Using AI Without Losing Yourself27:54 Trusting Psychic Messages31:18 Spiritual Hygiene and Ethics35:16 Fate Free Will and Timelines35:55 Soul Mission and Yearning36:29 Exit Points and Near Death Lessons38:24 Spirituality Redefined Over Time38:55 Early Religion and Rebellion40:19 Psychic Signs and Claircognizance41:46 Curiosity Opens New Paths43:23 Frustration with Disconnection47:54 Signs from Loved Ones52:04 Asking for Signs and Trusting Them54:41 Self Care and Avoiding Burnout01:00:11 Gentle First Steps to Spirituality01:03:54 Future Vision and Divine Timing01:08:51 Closing Reflections and Thankshttps://willowhealing.org/my-virtual-obsessionhttp://willowhealing.org/https://www.youtube.com/@willowhealingshhttps://www.instagram.com/willowhealingshhttps://www.threads.net/@willowhealingshhttps://willowhealing.substack.com/
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  Redefining Success Through Resilience and Radical Generosity with Ann Lopez 11.05.2026 58min

  Redefining Success Through Resilience and Radical Generosity with Ann LopezAnn Lopez, founder and creative director of Miami-based Studio Seven Ninety, shares how she rebuilt her life and business after a sudden COVID-era divorce and becoming a single mom just as she launched her firm. She credits consistent habits, faith, and years of self-development for choosing a “victor” mindset, then scaling by leveraging strengths, hiring to fill skill gaps, and learning through saying yes early on. Ann explains how she guides clients with confident, transparent budget conversations while practicing “No Ego Amigo,” prioritizing client happiness over being right. The conversation explores post-pandemic design’s emotional impact, hospitality-inspired touches, redefining success as time freedom and peace, and why she donates 10% of business income and mentors others. She also welcomes AI as a task-saver, and encourages late starters to pursue purpose with daily action and openness to miracles.00:00 Meet Ann Lopez00:53 Turning Life Around03:21 Habits Through Hardship07:45 Building Studio 79011:37 Hiring for Strengths12:30 Choosing the Right Projects16:38 Guiding Clients Confidently21:48 Homes That Support Wellbeing27:04 Luxury Hospitality at Home29:27 Rethinking Success and Burnout30:46 Redefining Rich Life33:03 Generosity And Giving Back36:31 Hiring For Values Fit40:19 Women Confidence Mindset47:22 Awards And External Validation50:33 AI In Interior Design52:51 Starting Over Later55:20 Dreams Vision And Miracles57:27 Closing Reflections
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  Authentic Leadership, Conflict Analysis, and Self-Sabotage with Dr. Liz DuBois Erskine 08.05.2026 59min

  Authentic Leadership, Conflict Analysis, and Self-Sabotage with Dr. Liz DuBois ErskineDr. Liz DuBois Erskine, a PhD conflict analyst and executive coach, discusses helping high performers stop self-sabotage driven by people-pleasing, burnout, and fear of judgment, especially in high-pressure, male-dominated environments. She reflects on rediscovering her “16-year-old self” after divorce, and describes her work as “like a therapist” for executives facing imposter syndrome and visibility pressure. The conversation explores why people shrink themselves for safety, how leadership is mishandled when promotions don’t include training, and how micromanagement often stems from insecurity and lack of trust. They discuss gender differences in self-doubt, rejecting rigid work-life balance in favor of flow, and her view that conflicts don’t resolve but evolve and can be essential for growth. Erskine addresses vulnerability vs oversharing, self-forgiveness after leadership missteps, sobriety, boundaries, and a mortality-driven commitment to not spending time on work she doesn’t want to do.00:00 Meet Dr Liz Erskine01:32 Finding Herself Again02:51 What Executive Coaching Means05:01 Why High Performers Self Sabotage05:49 Evolution And Visibility Pressure08:05 Promotion And Bad Leadership Models12:06 Micromanagement And Trust Issues13:47 Gender Confidence Gap At Work20:26 Pandemic And Default Gender Roles22:44 Work Life Flow Not Balance26:16 Conflict Analysis Not Resolution29:21 Why Conflict Can Be Healthy31:09 Conflict Fuels Progress31:44 AI In The Executive Suite34:24 Micromanagement And Insecurity35:22 Fear Of Judgment37:36 Vulnerability Vs Oversharing41:16 Becoming Your Real Self44:38 Self Worth And Acceptance47:26 Repairing Leadership Harm50:25 Protecting Your Wellbeing52:38 Sobriety And Temptation55:10 Mortality And Meaninghttps://drlizdubois.com/https://calendly.com/drliz_coaching/30min?month=2025-12https://www.instagram.com/thedrliz/https://www.linkedin.com/in/bizdrlizhttps://www.facebook.com/soul.dr.liz/mentions/
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  Machine Consciousness, Social AI, and the Ethics of Human–AI Relationships with Dr. Henry Shevlin 30.04.2026 1u 2min

  Machine Consciousness, Social AI, and the Ethics of Human–AI Relationships with Dr. Henry ShevlinAndrew interviews Dr. Henry Shevlin, Associate Director at Cambridge’s Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence and an in-house philosopher at Google DeepMind, about machine consciousness and the ethics of social AI. Shevlin explains consciousness as an inner world of experience, why its origins remain scientifically mysterious, and why it matters ethically for suffering and moral status. As AI becomes more general, he argues it’s increasingly reasonable to worry about future conscious AI and to manage public disagreement, while focusing now on human–AI interaction and why users mentalize systems (e.g., the 2022 Blake Lemoine/LaMDA incident).They discuss indirect reasons to treat AI respectfully, parallels with animal welfare and dignity for the brain-dead or dead bodies, and major social-AI risks including suicide cases, “LLM psychosis,” de-skilling, corporate control over relationships (Replika changes, GPT-4o retirement fears), value and political influence, and consent issues in celebrity/personality bots.They also explore grief bots’ potential benefits and dystopian failures, emerging multi-agent dynamics, and Shevlin’s book urging early public and policy engagement to shape social AI responsibly.00:00 Meet Dr Henry Shevlin00:55 What Is Consciousness03:33 Why Consciousness Matters04:45 AI Getting More General07:01 Developer Responsibilities10:55 Learning From Animal Ethics16:25 Does Consciousness Matter19:58 Moral Status Without Feeling25:45 Social AI Risks Today27:19 Suicide And Psychosis Cases30:42 Other Harms Deskill And Control34:46 Politics in LLMs35:25 Digital Doubles Rise37:21 Why We Demand Perfection41:15 Bias Against AI Outputs42:36 Grief Bots Debate44:12 Grief Bots Benefits Risks48:38 Consent and Deepfake Selves52:44 Digi Dan and Cloning Minds54:04 Book Ethics of Social AI56:28 Agents in Public Spaces59:10 Bots Emailing Bots01:00:34 Choosing Optimism and Agencyhttps://henryshevlin.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/henry-shevlin-b58941b/
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  From Good Ideas to Good Lives with Charles Lee 22.04.2026 58min

  From Good Ideas to Good Lives: Strategic Clarity, AI, and Human Agency with Charles LeeCharles Lee, founder and CEO of Ideation and author of Good Idea Now What and forthcoming Design Your Good Life, explains how he helps leaders move from vision to action through strategic clarity and brand execution. He discusses evaluating ideas for desirability, feasibility, viability, and timing, and notes that execution is shaped by organizational politics, relationships, and bandwidth constraints, citing a Harvard Business Review statistic that over 90% of projects don’t reach fruition. Lee argues AI should be treated as a tool, not a goal, emphasizing human agency, creativity, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, and moral guidance, while leaders must address training, communication, and security concerns. He advises collecting only necessary data to avoid liability and outlines his new book’s three-phase framework—Spark, Actualize, Influence—aimed at aligning purpose, confidence, contribution, and legacy in both work and life.00:00 Meet Charles Lee00:43 What Ideation Does01:34 From Idea to Execution03:51 Why Consultants Matter05:21 Hidden Conflict and Culture07:02 AI and Human Agency11:13 AI Adoption Fears and Trust13:53 Security and Governance16:17 Manufacturing Time with AI18:44 Data Overload to Clarity23:09 Short Term vs Transformation26:09 Why Startups Innovate Faster27:42 How Big Firms Buy Innovation29:56 Microsoft and Google Examples30:56 Inner Life Shapes Brands33:28 Leaders as the Brand36:55 Founder Versus CEO Reality37:50 Human Plus AI Strategy38:50 Writing as a Framework40:11 Design Your Good Life46:57 Defining a Good Life53:41 Business Next Chapter55:07 Advice for Young People58:08 Closing Reflectionshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/charlestleehttps://www.instagram.com/charlestlee/https://www.youtube.com/@charlestlee
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  Jaclyn Orent on Consciousness, Love-Led Leadership, and Building the Cultural Catalyst Network 13.04.2026 1u 12min

  Jaclyn Orent on Consciousness, Love-Led Leadership, and Building the Cultural Catalyst NetworkJaclyn Orent, co-founder and “frequency architect” of the Cultural Catalyst Network, explains her mission to create conditions for resonance, identity shift, and lasting cultural change by connecting purpose-driven leaders who feel underserved by traditional business networks and purely spiritual spaces. She recounts being fired from a corporate “dream job,” confronting health issues and food addiction, and undertaking a 36-day water fast that catalyzed a decade-long integration process involving self-mastery, support through a spiritual emergency, and practices like mindfulness and EFT. Orent frames leadership and systemic change through David Hawkins’ consciousness scale (force vs power, below vs above 200) and argues love is a practical driver of extraordinary outcomes. The conversation covers dissatisfaction in performance-only workplaces, long-term societal transitions (via Ray Dalio), AI’s limits around empathy and compassion, and the need for reflection and ethical audits. She advises visioning “who you want to become” across life domains and describes building infrastructure for cross-silo collaboration toward a new cultural system.00:00 Meet Jaclyn Orent00:56 Fired and Searching01:42 The 36 Day Fast02:57 Integration and Mastery04:49 Building Cultural Catalysts07:19 Beyond Profit Metrics09:01 Empathy and Human Fear13:01 Achievement Reframed13:32 Hawkins Consciousness Scale19:02 AI and Consciousness22:14 Love as Leadership Power27:04 Self Love and Healing Tools30:15 Transition and World Cycles33:39 Context Over Content36:41 Leaving the Old World37:39 Fear of the Unknown38:52 AI Race And Intentions40:00 Auditing AI Decisions40:52 Individuation And Autonomy43:30 Ethics In AI Companies46:06 Workplace Purpose Crisis49:13 Positive Vision Fuels Change53:45 Advice For Your Kids58:09 Handling Overwhelm Internally01:03:20 Somatic Healing And Seeking01:05:03 Cultural Catalyst Network01:07:58 Transformation And Service01:10:25 Final Thanks And Role Modelinghttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jaclynorent/https://www.culturalcatalysts.net/
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  Peter’s Warning: AI, Gene Editing, and the Race to Avoid Extinction 12.04.2026 1u 4min

  Peter’s Warning: AI, Gene Editing, and the Race to Avoid ExtinctionAn award-winning tech entrepreneur and author discusses why he believes humanity is on the edge of extinction due to four major threats: climate change, nuclear weapons, and the newer risks of CRISPR gene editing and AI.He argues scientists excel at creating technologies, but civilization is poor at controlling them, and calls for people to unite as an “Earthling tribe.” The conversation explores AI-driven job disruption, the possibility of sentient AI deciding humans are too dangerous, and ways to align AI through education from kindergarten to graduate school and incentive/guardrail design.He describes themes from his novels, including cooperative human-robot relationships, grief/after-death avatars and their dangers, misinformation labeling, Mars settlement governance, rapid technological change, and personal experiences with AI adding text to a manuscript and a deepfake scam.00:00 Meet Peter's Mission01:29 Four Existential Threats03:02 Why We Lack Guardrails05:52 Robots and CRISPR Nightmare07:55 Climate Lessons for AI09:31 Teach AI From Kindergarten12:12 Catastrophic Risk and Jobs15:55 Could AI Become Sentient21:39 Coexisting With AI22:21 Mars Model for Safe AI28:13 Grief Bots and Immortality30:41 Colonizing Mars Faster34:49 How Ideas Accelerate Change35:28 Tech Time Compression37:03 Firehose of Misinformation38:41 Earthling Tribe Mindset41:25 Governing Mars Together44:46 Youth Activism Gap47:01 Social Media Not Social 49:15 AI as Creative Partner52:00 Copilot Adds a Paragraph56:14 Deepfake Scam Wakeup58:20 Does AI Make Us Dumber01:01:00 Staying Well Amid Doom01:02:28 Make Earth Great Again01:04:18 Closing Thanks and Wraphttps://100yearstoextinction.com/https://www.youtube.com/@100YearsToExtinction-1/featuredhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-solomon-72380b36/
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  Andrea Carter on Building Belonging 09.04.2026 1u 17min

  Andrea Carter on Building Belonging: Five Neurological Indicators and the Infrastructure Empathy NeedsOrganizational scientist and belonging expert Andrea Carter discusses how early experiences of intergenerational trauma, pressure to fit in, and standing out due to extreme height shaped her focus on belonging, including bullying faced by her family. She distinguishes belonging from inclusion, arguing inclusion is a behavior while belonging is a brain-level need sustained by environmental infrastructure, and warns that typical DEI rollouts can polarize workplaces.Carter summarizes her research, including a Canadian mining industry study of 3,508 employees across 13 TSX-listed companies and later expansion to 150,000+ employees across eight industries, identifying five interdependent neurological indicators: comfort, connection (where empathy lives), contribution, psychological safety, and wellbeing.The conversation covers remote work, loneliness despite abundant communication tools, the “inconvenience” required for belonging, how averages hide belonging gaps, examples of performance differences between high- and low-belonging plants, AI rollout risks without contextual knowledge, and Carter’s plans for a forthcoming traditionally published book, tools, and future certification/licensing. 00:00 Meet Andrea Carter01:35 Growing Up Without Belonging03:57 Standing Out and Bullying06:43 Belonging vs Inclusion07:42 Research Breakthrough19:02 Why Averages Mislead22:16 Five Belonging Indicators33:34 Remote Work and Belonging39:37 Isolation Aftermath41:40 Remote Work Belonging43:27 Loneliness Paradox44:41 Belonging Not Fitting46:10 Cancel Culture Costs48:28 Belonging Diagnostic Tool50:37 Empathy Infrastructure54:40 Friction In Connection55:53 AI And Belonging57:35 AI Localization Failures01:02:25 Protecting Consultant Wellbeing01:08:41 Scaling The Method01:10:45 Five Year Roadmap01:13:44 Book Progress And Series01:16:09 Closing Reflectionshttps://belongingfirst.com/https://andreadcarter.substack.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreadcarter/https://www.adler.edu/faculty-engagement/faculty-directory/carter-andrea-d/https://theconversation.com/the-price-of-belonging-is-inconvenience-are-we-still-willing-to-pay-it-270778
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  Control, Observability, and Human-Centered AI with Logan Kelly 02.04.2026 56min

  Agent Governance in Production: Control, Observability, and Human-Centered AI with Logan KellyLogan Kelly, CEO and co-founder of Waxell.ai, discusses building a governance, observability, and runtime control layer for AI agents in production so autonomous systems remain reliable, auditable, and aligned with business and ethical constraints. Drawing on experience running autonomous sales agents at scale, he argues governance should sit above agents to avoid boilerplate, prevent bypasses, and let operations, finance, security, and frontline teams shape behavior without shipping new code. The conversation covers how governance can start with cost and quality controls, expand into runtime enforcement, and help organizations move faster through better visibility and safer adjustments. They also address risks of employees bringing third-party agents into corporate environments, the need for organizational ownership and culture, and a future focused on augmenting humans with multiple agents rather than replacing workers.00:00 Agent Governance Overview00:53 Formative Lessons in AI03:39 Why Governance Sits Above05:50 What Customers Want First07:07 Governance Helps You Move10:19 Shadow Agents and Security12:44 Who Owns the AI15:26 AI Hype and Economics19:32 Augmentation Not Replacement25:42 Outcomes Over Process28:58 Orchestration Over Copilots30:02 Building The AI Foundation31:05 Who Owns AI33:12 Adoption And Culture36:04 AI Needs Imagination38:01 AI As A Skill41:11 Guiding Teens For AI48:53 Human Communication Edge50:21 Five Year Agent Future52:52 Cycling And Ambitionshttps://waxell.ai/